The invention relates to a maintenance unit which is moveably disposed along a spinning machine and adjustably positioned at the respective spinning units thereof and which includes at least one fiber end impurities or fly catching needle connected to a rotational driving unit.
A maintenance device is known from German published unexamined application (DE-OS) No. 28 04 606 which includes a fiber fly catching needle drivingly connected to a rotational drive unit. The fiber fly catching needle is arranged in a stationary guide of the maintenance unit in this known construction and is designed to extend into the region of the driving elements or the like during the operation of the maintenance unit. In order to remove the captured impurities that are collected on the fiber fly catching needle during the operational movements, the same is movably returned in this stationary guide so that stripping elements there arranged strip off the impurities from the fiber fly catching needle. Although it is mentioned that the fiber fly catching needle should also be arranged for the cleaning of the drafting unit, it is however not possible by this known maintenance unit because the drafting device exhibits protruding construction parts in the travel direction of the fiber fly catching needle so that it cannot extend to the regions of the drafting unit to be cleaned. A maintenance device that can accommodate such cleaning of a drafting unit is not known in the practice at this time.
In practice, hand cleaning devices are used which include fiber fly catching needles and which are adjusted to the regions to be cleaned by the maintenance person. With this type of hand cleaning devices, the cleaning effect is dependent very much on the carefulness of the maintenance person so that the desired cleaning results can not be achieved in all cases.
The invention is based upon the problem to construct a maintenance unit of the above mentioned kind that makes possible an effective cleaning especially of the drafting units which are exposed especially to fiber fly impurities.
This problem is thereby solved in that the fiber fly catching needle is held with a holder which is moveable in at least two directions and is outfitted with at least two controllable drives for adjustable movement of the fiber fly catching needle to several position of a spinning unit.
Through this construction it is possible to adjustably move the maintenance unit to a spinning position or unit and to carry out an automatic and effective cleaning, especially of the dfafting unit of the spinning unit. The fiber fly catching needle can thereby be effectively adjusted to the regions to be cleaned, especially such regions of a drafting unit, so that a reliable cleaning is achieved.
In advantageous forms of the invention it is provided that the drive for the holder is connected to a program switching unit which is programmed with at least one predetermined travel path of the adjusting movement of the fiber fly catching needle. The fiber fly catching needle and this arrangement carries out an exact predetermined movement at the spinning unit to be cleaned so that all of the parts or positions to be cleaned are reliably reached. Thereby it can be provided that the program switch exhibits different movement paths for different maintenance cycles so that also very different regions of the spinning station can be cleaned by a corresponding maintenance cycle. Thereby it is possible to carry out the cleaning at an operating spinning unit.
It is also however contemplated by certain preferred embodiments of the invention to integrate the fly catching needle with its holding device in a maintenance unit for other maintenance procedures, for example in a start spinning or piecing device, so that then with the corresponding maintenance procedure, if the maintenance unit is adjusted to a spinning unit, also the cleaning process by the fiber fly catching needle can be carried out.
According to further advantageous features of certain preferred embodiments of the invention it is provided that the maintenance unit includes at least one suction nozzle adjustably moveable to the spinning unit. With this suction nozzle, the cleaning can be intensified. In certain embodiments of the invention it is provided that the maintenance unit includes at least one air pressure nozzle adjustably moveable to the spinning units. With the help of this air pressure nozzle the cleaning process can be further intensified. With an advantageous embodiment of the invention it is thereby provided that the suction nozzle and/or air pressure nozzle is arranged at the holder for the fiber fly catching needle and is adjustably moveable together therewith.
Further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.